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A beaming Bill Johnson laid eyes on his baby girl for the first time a day before her 72nd birthday. Over 50 years in the wrapper, this birthday present couldn’t be more perfect, he said.
Zindy Laursen, a Danish singer and pop artist, walked into Baton Rouge Regional Airport on Wednesday ready to embrace her newly reunited father and her Louisiana heritage.
Laursen, known in Denmark as Zindy, rose to fame as a singer and Grammy winner, but always fell short of her desire to find and meet her biological father.
She knew her father was an American serviceman on leave from the Vietnam War when he met her mother in Australia. After her stepfather died when she was 16, Laursen said she was eager to learn more about her biological father.
His parents, a Danish go-go dancer and an American GI on their way to Vietnam, met more than 50 years ago in Australia.
Laursen paid tribute to Brian Hjort during the finish rally. Hjort privately helps connect long-lost family members using DNA testing and he was the technician administering COVID-19 tests near her home in Denmark.
Hjort not only recognized Laursen from her musical fame, but he knew she was looking for her father and offered to help.
Brian is just a wonderful mind, Laursen said. He took a DNA sample and a few months later he actually found a match with my cousin Randall.
This relative match was Johnson’s nephew. By working with an international group called Father Found, Hjort was able to help Laursen locate Johnson who submitted himself to DNA testing which confirmed that he was Laursen’s father.
They not only said, ‘He’s your father, but (Hjort) does it out of the goodness of their hearts,’ Laursen said.
Johnson, a retired police captain from Zachary, said he doesn’t lament the time wasted. Instead, he said he was focusing on the gifts that awaited us.
Today is a very, very exciting day in my life, the most exciting day of my life because God blessed me and with something that I didn’t have, he said. It’s great that we met, no matter what time it is. God is always on time and today is just his time.
Laursen and his brother Marc Johnson, a fellow musician, are in Louisiana for the first time, and they are planning a short course on all things Louisiana while there.
It’s my first time here, so I’m expecting a lot of things that I want to try, she said. I hope to try many dishes, especially the okra, but I’m looking forward to all the music, culture and cornbread! I heard it was great, but never tried in my life because I grew up in Scandinavia.
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